Python philosophy

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Users of the Python programming language often refer to the Python philosophy which is somewhat analogous to the Unix philosophy. Code which follows the Python principles of readability and transparency is said to be "pythonic". Conversely, opaque or obfuscated code is regarded as "unpythonic". These principles were famously characterized by Python developer Tim Peters in The Zen of Python:

1. Beautiful is better than ugly.
2. Explicit is better than implicit.
3. Simple is better than complex.
4. Complex is better than complicated.
5. Flat is better than nested.
6. Sparse is better than dense.
7. Readability counts.
8. Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules.
9. Although practicality beats purity.
10. Errors should never pass silently.
11. Unless explicitly silenced.
12. In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.
13. There should be one—and preferably only one—obvious way to do it.
14. Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you're Dutch.^[1]
15. Now is better than never.
16. Although never is often better than right now.
17. If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea.
18. If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.
19. Namespaces are one honking great idea—let's do more of those!

Python 2.1.2 and later embed these points as an easter egg, displayed by executing import this.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ "Dutch" is a reference to Guido van Rossum, the author of the Python programming language, who is Dutch; as well as to the high-concentration of other well-known Dutch Python developers relative to other nationalities.

[edit] References

• Tim Peters. PEP 20: The Zen of Python.